Welcome to my page!
I have been writing about Iran as an academic and journalist for over twenty years. I am currently Assistant Professor of Media and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. I earned my Ph.D. from the University of Oxford, was the inaugural Yarshater Postdoctoral Associate in Iranian Studies at Yale University, and a visiting professor in the anthropology of religion at Harvard Divinity School. I am the author of Soundtrack of the Revolution: The Politics of Music in Iran (Stanford, 2017), and have published in academic journals such as Iranian Studies, International Journal of Middle East Studies, and Cultural Anthropology. Previously, I was an Iran correspondent for Time Magazine and a Middle East correspondent for Al Jazeera International. My recent commentaries have appeared in The New York Times, New Lines Magazine, Foreign Policy, BBC, and NPR. In 2023, I launched the podcast series “Woman, Life, Freedom: All in on Iran,” which captures and archives important knowledge on the 2022 uprising in Iran.
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Woman Life Freedom Podcast
This is a podcast series in which we go deep in conversations with experts on various aspect of the revolutionary uprising that began in Iran in September 2022, when 22-year old Mahsa Jina Amini was killed in Morality Police detention.
In each episode, we unpack an important aspect of what has been a historic moment unfolding in Iran. We draw both on our experts’ professional insights, but also engage with them as humans living through these momentous times.
Sep 24, 2024 On the occasion of Spring Equinox – Nowruz in the Persian tradition – let’s “wash our eyes” and see the world anew. Dr. Nahid Siamdoust talks about the significance of the recent phenomenon of viral dance videos in Iran and traces their history. At a time of global political despair, these dance memes issue an important call to life. Let’s engage more actively in our country’s foreign politics and elect leaders who honor our common humanity and answer this call to life. Nahid Siamdoust has been writing about Iran for over twenty years. She is an assistant professor of media and Middle East studies at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of Soundtrack of the Revolution: The Politics of Music in Iran (Stanford, 2017). Nahid earned her Ph.D. from Oxford, was a Yarshater Postdoctoral Associate at Yale, and a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School. She was an Iran correspondent for Time and a Middle East correspondent for *Al Jazeera International*. Her recent work appears in *The New York Times*, *New Lines Magazine*, *Foreign Policy*, BBC, and NPR. In 2023, she launched the podcast “Woman, Life, Freedom: All in on Iran” about the 2022/23 uprising. She is currently working on a book about publics and the politics of joy in Islamic Iran. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx